The Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) Grade 9 boys' volleyball team hosted the East Central District (ECD) championship tournament.
Tournament coordinator, YRHS coach Darren Wandy, says eight teams vied for the ECD title. The top two teams from each of the ECD conferences advanced to the district playoffs, wandy explains.
The tournament saw two pools with two first place teams and two second place teams from each conference placed into each pool, Wandy elaborates.
The level of competition was pretty good, he says. It became apparent which would be the top three teams from about the mid point of the season, Wandy states.
Melville emerged as tournament winners, to become the 2010 ECD champions. "They had the most athletic team there which seemed to get better as the year went on," Wandy comments.
Wandy acknowledges the work of Melville coach Dan Alspach of the Grade 9 Cobras who led his team to the gold medal and ECD title.
Esterhazy finished se-cond. "They were one of the stronger teams at the tournament we played at this year, getting progressively stronger over the last three years," Wandy declares.
Langenburg beat Invermay in the bronze medal game.
The YRHS squad had a tough year, Wandy suggests. The team was short of players all season, competing with six of the seven team members at the tournament. It made things tough with no one to substitute when play wasn't going well and players were tired, he points out. "We didn't have the horses this weekend. It seemed like we didn't have the personnel throughout the year to carry us through to some victories," Wandy states.
Wandy feels his team developed well over the season. "There's an old saying that you don't lose games, you just run out of time and that's kind of what happened with us," he comments.
He would like to thank parents for their support of the youngsters all season.
He also expresses appreciation to Dave Baron and the referees for organizing the tournament officiating.
The YRHS Grade 9 Raiders will wrap up their season at a tournament at Vincent Massey in Brandon this weekend.
